Contact Information

Office Hours

Education

Ph.D., M.S., West Virginia University; M.A., University of Bath, England; B.A., Suffolk University

What I'm Working On

Courses I Teach

Dr. Mehta teaches Child Psychology, Human Development I: Child and Adolescent Development, Human Development II:Adult Development and Aging, and Senior Directed Research I & II. In Fall 2013 Dr. Mehta will be teaching Senior Directed Research in the psychology department and a first year seminar titled Friendships on Film.

Publications + Presentations

Mehta, C.M., Keener, E., & Shrier, L. A. (in press). Women's experiences of graduate school in the US and the UK: An interpretative phenomenological investigation. Gender and Education.

Research Focus

Broadly defined, Dr. Mehta's research interests are related to how sex (biological characteristics of a person related to reproduction), gender (culturally socialized characteristics believed to be appropriate for males and females; Unger, 1979), and related social processes (e.g., sex segregation), influence adolescents' and young adults' beliefs and behaviors. Based on these interests, Dr. Mehta investigates the correlates and consequences of sex segregation (the tendency to spend time with same-sex peers; Mehta & Strough, 2009; Mehta & Strough, 2010), including the influence of gender roles socialized in same sex peer groups, on sexual activity (Mehta, Sunner, Head, Crosby & Shrier, 2011; Sunner, Walls, Mehta, Blood & Shrier, 2012) and substance use.

Dr. Mehta's research is guided by two complimentary theoretical perspectives: (1) a lifespan theoretical perspective, which contends that development occurs across the lifespan within a larger socio-historical context, and (2) a social-constructivist model of gender development that contends that gender-typed characteristics are best understood as created and maintained by the transaction of the individual and the immediate context (Deaux & Major, 1987). Dr. Mehta uses both quantitative and qualitative methodology to answer research questions, and intend to continue to develop an expertise in both approaches.

In addition to being an Assistant Professor in the psychology department at Emmanuel College, Boston, Dr. Mehta is also a staff scientist at Boston Children's Hospital, and a fellow in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Mehta leads the lifespan lab at Emmanuel College.